Remarkable Prices Spawn Interest In New Items

NEW YORK — Will English majolica replace Meissen in collectors` affections now that a record price--$3,850--was paid last October for an 1890s majolica dish in a sale at William Doyle Galleries?

Does 20th-Century artists` furniture have a futures value comparable to French 18th-Century furniture after a rhinoceros-shaped desk by Claude Lalanne sold for a record $49,500 at Sotheby`s in New York in November?

Will teddy bears replace tin boats as the most sought-after item by toy collectors now that a well-worn 1905 Steiff bear sold at Sotheby`s in London in October for $4,488, the highest price at auction for such a stuffed toy?

These are some of the questions raised in reviewing the record prices paid at auctions in 1985. It was a year when adventurous collectors pioneered their pursuit of unconventional objects and paid extraordinary prices for fanciful and uncommon works in a score of categories formerly overlooked by serious decorative arts enthusiasts. Auction houses reported these new classifications because of the remarkable prices, which usually become benchmarks for future bidding. Some people, however, assert that it is the reporting of high auction prices itself that leads to even higher prices.

Anthony Phillips, a senior vice president of Christie`s, says that the interest in lesser-known collecting fields is a consequence of ``the shortage of great objects in every area that makes today`s collectors pursue things never thought of as important 10 or 20 years ago.``

For example, a great crowd showed up at Christie`s New York galleries in November to watch and bid on a pair of Russian 18th-Century, ivory-veneered desks. The pair soared past the $60,000 that the auction house had expected and sold for $385,000. This established a record for Russian furniture, a new category.

In May, again at Christie`s, collectors propelled prices upward in another new area--Tiffany & Co. silver--with the sale of an 1890s bowl in American Indian styling for $63,800. In auctions the Tiffany name has usually meant Louis Comfort Tiffany, designer of lamps and vases, not the 5th Avenue jeweler, producer of this bowl. Why such an unexpectedly high price? Very few were made, Christie`s reports.

Decoys, a category of increasing interest, were another bidding target. A pair of red-breasted merganser hens brought $93,500, a record for a pair, at Christie`s, and at Richard Bourne Galleries in Hyannis, Mass., a golden plover decoy carved c. 1890 became, at $50,000, the most expensive single decoy ever auctioned.

American furniture continued its upward spiral whenever rare and fine examples showed up. Robert C. Woolley, senior vice president in charge of decorative arts at Sotheby`s, says he was not surprised. ``There are 240 million people chasing the furniture made for 240 families in 18th-Century America,`` he says.

The highest price in 1985 for American furniture was $583,000 for a dining table at Sotheby`s. The Chippendale mahogany table, crafted in Philadelphia about 1770, is in two parts with drop leaves. Other bidding went to record levels in American furniture sales for a chest-on-chest at $308,000 and a wing chair at $159,500, both at Sotheby`s, and a highboy at $363,000 and a tea table at $286,000, both at Christie`s.

Great rarities have always commanded the attention of collectors and museums, and in 1985 they brought stunning prices. Gold objects of great value seldom remain in private hands for a century or more, which helps explain why a 1790s christening vessel called the Portland Font--a tour de force of craftsmanship by Paul Storr--sold at Christie`s in London for $1.3 million to Armitage, a London dealer.

Another rarity at auction is ancient glass. Last year a cameo Roman flask from about 25 B.C. was acquired for $356,400 at Christie`s in London by the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu, Calif. And a piece of English George III furniture, one of the few documented works by Thomas Chippendale to appear for sale, sold to a collector at Christie`s in New York for $242,000, a record for Chippendale.

The rarity of Jean Dunand`s furniture group, a cube table and four chairs that sold for $449,032, accounts for its being the most expensive group of 20th-Century furniture ever sold at auction. The 1930 game table was a one-of- a-kind design in black lacquer and eggshell made for French couturier Madeleine Vionnet. The group sold at Nouveau Drouot in Paris to Felix Marcilhac, an expert representing an unidentified American buyer.

Rarity also determined the price of one of the newest collectible categories: the teddy bear. Richard Wright, a Birchrunville, Pa., dealer who purchased the Steiff bear for an American collector at Sotheby`s in London, says, ``Until a few years ago no one paid such prices for teddy bears.`` This one, he says, was special: at 30 inches, it was larger than most.

``These were all handmade,`` he adds, ``and the expression on this bear is absolutely wonderful.``